Cinema Quarterly (1934 - 1935)

POST HASTE. (British. G.P.O. Films. John Grierson.) An effective method of putting history on the screen has proved elusive and the reconstruction of the past has seldom been done with much satisfaction. In the romantic historical films it has become a matter of fanciful, if not completely irrelevant, detail. Henry's wives and Bruce's spider have taken the place of more significant elements. In recent years, history books have somewhat altered in character, and students have been encouraged to probe into the documents of the past instead of accepting someone's imaginative reconstruction. This new G.P.O. experiment, Post Haste, may have interesting repercussions in this connection. It tells of some three hundred years of Post Office history in this country, and is composed almost entirely of period illustrations from the British Museum collection. They are mostly prints and embody a contemporary comment on current affairs. They are carefully photographed and effectively edited by Humphrey Jennings. The result is an intimate, exact and informative account. Occasional sound effects give life to the old prints and a three-part commentary is humorous and instructive. The film effectively points to one successful method of reconstructing the past. Thomas Baird. SCOTS AMATEUR FESTIVAL Andrew Buchanan was the adjudicator at the second Scottish Amateur Film Festival, held under the auspices of the Meteor Film Producing Society in Glasgow. This year the scope was widened and the competitions, divided into four classes, were opened to English as well as Scottish clubs. The prize-winning film was Seven Till Five, produced by the Glasgow School of Art Kinecraft Society. This film, which gave an impression of a day in the College, Mr. Buchanan described as a piece of real cinema. Its director, Norman McLaren, revealed an intelligent understanding of film technique. In the class for story films, the award was given to the Meteor Film Society's Situations Vacant, a consequence tale of the dismissal of employees from a Glasgow office, directed by Stanley L. Russell. The award in the class for interest films was divided between Seven Till Five and The Outer Isles, W. H. George's film of the Hebrides. In the class for interest films confined to Scottish entrants, the successful picture was Edge 0' Winter, a grouping of shots in colour by Ian S. Ross. In the class for sound films was an ambitious news-reel impression of the work of the Glasgow police. The Meteor Society, organisers of the Festival, are to be congratulated on their efforts to encourage amateur film-making and to guide the activities of societies along the most profitable channels. RECORD OF SUBSTANDARD FILMS In response to numerous enquiries Cinema Quarterly is compiling a record of substandard films of a documentary, educational, or experimental nature. Both amateur and commercial producers are invited to submit details of sucn films, including contents, size, length, and also rates and conditions of hiring. We regret to announce the untimely death of Lewis Grassic Gibbon, following an operation for peritonitis. Only thirty-three years of age, his interest in cinema was very real, and he had hoped that his novel " Sunset Song " would be adapted for the screen. He was about to commence the scenario when he became ill. The article printed in this issue was one of the last things he wrote. — N.W. 120